Your Right to Know

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama instructed Attorney General Eric Holder yesterday to review
Justice Department guidelines for leak investigations, meet with media organizations and report
back to him by mid-July.

In a speech to the National Defense University, Obama addressed the uproar over his
administration’s numerous leak investigations, saying he is troubled that the inquiries might chill
investigative journalism. But he also said certain information must remain secret to protect
national security.

“I believe we must keep information secret that protects our operations and our people in the
field,” Obama said. “To do so, we must enforce consequences for those who break the law and breach
their commitment to protect classified information. But a free press is also essential for our
democracy.”

The president’s call for a review of Justice Department guidelines came 10 days after it was
disclosed that the department secretly obtained records from a two-month period for 20 telephone
and cellular lines of journalists working for the Associated Press in Washington, New York and
Hartford, Conn. The subpoena for the records was part of a year-long investigation of the
disclosure of classified information about a failed al-Qaida plot last year.

Court papers last week also disclosed that, in another leak investigation, the Justice
Department obtained a search warrant for Fox News Channel reporter James Rosen’s personal emails
and used security-badge access records to track his comings and goings at the State Department.

The disclosures enraged media organizations and government secrecy groups.